ICT4D RESEARCH:

REFLECTIONS ON HISTORY
AND FUTURE AGENDA
Geoff Walsham

Presented by: Anirban Das

 Key Idea
• 82 paper survey - Provides some reflections on the history of the field broken down
into three phases from the mid-1980s to the present.
• Discussion of future research agenda, including topic selection, the role of theory,
methodological issues and multidisciplinarity, and research impact.
• Current topics within ICT4D research have to do with how ICT can contribute to
development, rather than the effects of methods on the ICT4D projects themselves. For
example, how ICT can combat systematic poverty or improve the overall health of
people
• Future lies in a multidisciplinary interaction between researchers, practitioners, and
policy-makers.
 Key Quote
“IS researchers need to adopt a trans-disciplinary perspective, seeing their contribution as
potentially important but respecting and engaging with the perspectives from other
disciplinary fields.” - Author
 Key Issue
Selective and limited survey
LITERATURE IT USES & GAP IT FILLS
 Walsham and Sahay (2006), - landscape of IS research
concerned with developing countries
 Avgerou (2008) - how developing countries have
attempted to benefit from ICTs and identified three broad
discourses – (i). ICTs as technology and knowledge
transfer, (ii). a process of socially embedded action, and
(iii) transformative intervention.
 Gomez, Baron, and Fiore-Silfvast (2012), Gallivan and
Tao (2013) and Thapa and Sæbø (2014), and the setting
of future agenda for the field (Heeks, 2014).
 Gap It Fills: Provide a current synthesis of ICT4D in
terms of both its history and future prospects
ICT4D LITERATURE
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
1. MAJOR SOCIETAL ISSUES
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
2. BIG DATA AND SOCIAL MEDIA
 Volume, velocity, variety, and veracity of big data disrupt
the traditional information value chain
 Potential of participatory big data (or techno-optimism
there off)
 Proliferation and extensive use of social media

 Dark side of social media such as cyber-bullying,

organizing riots, and spreading hatred
3. ROLE OF THEORY
 Actor-network theory - to try to trace and explain the processes
whereby relatively stable networks of aligned interests are
created and maintained, or alternatively to examine why such
networks
fail to establish themselves
 Institutional theory - Institutions are multi-faceted, durable
social structures, made up of symbolic elements, social
activities, and material resources. Institutions exhibit distinctive
properties. They are relatively resistant to change. They tend to
be transmitted across generations, to be maintained and
reproduced.
 Sustainable livelihoods framework
METHODOLOGY
 Multidisciplinarity - wide range of approaches to flourish and
offering complementary insights into the various phenomena
 Transdisciplinarity –

 (i) positivism and interpretivism, and whether they can be combined

in multi-methodological approaches
(ii) various disciplines contributing to the field, such as anthropology,
computer science, geography, development studies, and IS, could be
brought together under one methodological or theoretical umbrella
 To hold on to both the specificity of particular ways of thinking and
knowing that define disciplines, while creating the space of their
productive encounter so that a different kind of
knowledge emerges in the act of intersection and traverse of varied
fields through which a shared concept might travel.
PRIME REASONS FOR REJECTION
 The theory in the paper was not always well-aligned to
the empirical data. theory/data link was often unclear.
 The structure and flow of a paper was confusing.

 The specific contribution of papers to the literature was

often unclear.
CONCLUSION
 The current world remains one of striking inequity,
despite major advances in many areas including that of
technology.
 Thus a major ethical challenge for us all is to try to
create a better world
 People from less advantaged backgrounds can be
enabled to enhance their capabilities and increase their
participation in matters which affect their lives.
 IS researchers need to adopt a trans-disciplinary
perspective, seeing their contribution as potentially
important but respecting and engaging with the
perspectives from other disciplinary fields.